Men's Soccer Falls to Babson, 3-1, in NEWMAC Title Game

BABSON PARK, Mass. &ndash; Competing in its first New England Women&rsquo;s and Men&rsquo;s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament Championship Game under the tutelage of second-year head coach Milton Gooding, the MIT men&rsquo;s soccer team fell to host and top-seed Babson College, 3-1, on Sunday. With the loss, the Engineers, currently ranked fifth in New England, fell to 16-3-2 on the season.

MIT still has a chance of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament as two of their losses came to No. 2 Babson while No. 3 Clark University and No. 4 Trinity College made early exits in its conference tournaments. The complete bracket will be available on www.ncaa.com Monday morning.

Babson jumped out to a 1-0 lead early in the contest, beginning when Tim Winn headed a corner kick to Shane Fogarty near the goal line. Fogarty then slid a pass to Max Walker, who blasted a shot inside the right post at 9:55. MIT then nearly tied the game in the 26th minute, but Babson goalie Peter Crowley made his best save of the contest when he used a terrific diving effort to knock a hard shot by Andrew Bishara just beyond the right post.

After the Beavers took a 1-0 lead into the half, MIT rallied behind Christian Therkelsen, who netted his conference-leading 15th goal of the season at 48:18. The Engineers&rsquo; top offensive threat broke free down the right side of the field and lofted a perfect shot over a leaping Crowley to even the contest at 1-1.

Babson took the lead for good at 57:11, when Billy Nickerson took a feed from Winn at the top of the box, cut back to his left, and ripped a shot around the defense and into the upper left 90 for his 11th goal of the season. It marked his second game-winning goal of the weekend and his league-leading seventh of the season. Winn then tacked on a key insurance goal at 65:51, as he followed up a rebound of his own blocked shot and tucked it into the lower left corner for his 14th of the campaign.

Crowley finished with five saves in net for Babson, while MIT keeper Tom Caldwell made four stops. The Engineers&rsquo; Jason Zhu also added a blocked shot on the goal line late in the game.